LPR shows off Sywell automation investment

Pallet pooling business LPR opened the doors to its Sywell depot, on Thursday 6 September, showcasing its latest investment in automation to customers and suppliers.

Working closely with XPO Logistics, LPR’s six-figure investment in its largest UK depot, has upgraded the site to fully automated.

While the automation itself doesn’t rely on sensors to indicate if a pallet is in need of repair, it does allow a single operator to sort 350+ pallets per hour and determine if the pallet is ready for reuse or requires repair.

The open day, which included a tour of the facility and demonstrations, revealed the process behind pallet pooling and the quality assurance LPR provides.

Simon Wood, operations director for LPR UK and Ireland, said: “Sywell has become the largest depot in Europe for LPR in terms of volume and is now servicing 28% of UK customer sites thanks to the automation. These upgrades signal LPR’s intent to continually improve efficiencies across its network, while ensuring safety and first-rate working environments.”

He continues: “In 2017, when the site was completely manual, we repaired over 600,000 pallets and sorted 2,600,000. Since the automation was installed in 2018, these numbers have grown by an average of 16% YTD. By the end of the year we expect to have repaired more than 770,000 and sorted 3,100,000 pallets.”